Wednesday, 31 December 2008

One last (urgent) thing...

Got room for a Tennessee pup, cat, or horse?

Shelter Closing! Many Free dogs available to good GOOD homes. 10 are scheduled to be PTS [put to sleep - ed] Monday. Various breeds, some are fully vetted, spayed or neutered. Save a life, adopt one! You can see a list on petfinders.

Call 731-439-3471 to place a hold on the dog you're interested in. Must be family pet adoptions, all are good with kids. References will be needed. The shelter is closing due to lack of funding. All dogs must go. Please help them, they have always been a no-kill shelter, they are now forced to euthanize. Please consider saving one of these wonderful pets.

The 30 remining dogs are the biggest concern, but they also have 2 horses, and 5 cats (as of today). The cats include 3 kittens (apparantly from the same litter), one baby, and one adult. The shelter is in Selmer, Tennessee, about 60 miles east of Memphis and just up the road from Corinth, Mississippi.

Terry Pratchett has admitted he's “flabbergasted” to be awarded a knighthood for services to literature in the New Year Honours list.

The 60-year-old Discworld scribe told the BBC: “There are times when phrases such as ‘totally astonished’ just don't do the job. I am of course delighted and honoured and, needless to say, flabbergasted.”

Friday, 26 December 2008

SCIENTISTS have warned that Christmas lights are bad for the planet due to huge electricity waste and urged people to get energy efficient festive bulbs.

CSIRO [Commonwealth Scientific Research Organisation, Australia] researchers said householders should know that each bulb turned on in the name of Christmas will increase emissions of greenhouse gases.

Dr Glenn Platt, who leads research on energy demand, said Australia got 80 per cent of its electricity by burning coal which pumps harmful emissions into the atmosphere...

He said the nation’s electricity came from “centralised carbon intensive, coal-based power stations” which were responsible for emitting over one third of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Since my office had previously been in the same building as the Philadelphia Stock and Options Exchange, I knew many of the employees of the exchange and leading market makers. When I called them, all of them said that they knew Bernie but did not trade with him. Even though he said that he traded his options over the counter, I still seemed strange to me that none of the giants in the tight-knit options world traded with him. - Laura Goldman (HT: Insty)